author of nonfiction books and poetry for young readers

Menu

Monthly Archives: June 2013

Is there anything better than a surprise package in the mail? This week’s mail brought me a home-made poetry collage (and many oohs and ahhs.) And I’m willing to share:

Mary Lee Hahn sent me the collage for the first round of this year’s poetry swap, organized by Tabatha. Mary Lee found the larger-than-life stag beetle sauntering down her sidewalk. It’s impressive, as is her poem:

Habitat

A rhino needs a grassy plain,
For worms, the dirt’s essential.
The open sky’s the hawk’s domain,
The mole requires a tunnel.

A spider builds between the weeds,
A front desires a current.
A big soft chair, a book to read:
For me, that is sufficient.–Mary Lee Hahn, 2013

When I looked at Mary Lee’s artwork I felt a little chagrined about what I had sent Joy Acey for the swap. A plain old poem on plain old paper with a teeny tiny handwritten note. Yikes–I better step it up for the next round!

The poem I sent to Joy was inspired by the Viceroy, my daughter’s pet axolotl. The Viceroy has spent most of its life at Oberlin College, but recently graduated. S/He’s an impressive amphibian–how many salamanders do you know that have a book dedicated to them?? Viceroy is now in Michigan until said daughter finds a job and flies the coop. Like any college student, the Viceroy gets much better food at home than at school. The daughter and I have been catching pond critters that Viceroy snaps up in an instant: